1+1=3! Part 15 – Baby C’s Nursery



In my previous post, I shared about Baby C’s cot and its accompanying mattress in her nursery. I will continue to share about the other items in her nursery for this post.

Cot Sheets

As the mattress we bought for Baby C was thicker than usual (6″ instead of 3-4″), I was quite worried that we would be unable to find standard cot sheets to fit the mattress. However, as Homie stated in their product description that their cot sheets could fit both a 120x60cm mattress (ours) and a 130x70cm mattress, I decided to take a leap of faith to pre-order three cot sheets at the recently-concluded Mummy’s Market. Instead of its usual price at $16 a piece, I paid $35 for three sheets during the pre-order.

When we went to collect our sheets during the baby fair, both Sunshine and I were quite disappointed as the sheets did not look very pretty and soft to the touch. On closer look though, I managed to find four designs which I thought looked good! Sunshine had to make the final decision on which one to eliminate in the end. Haha. In addition, after washing one sheet and fitting it onto the mattress, both of us were quite satisfied with our buy as it looked good and the sheets were 100% cotton which I hope would be more comfortable for Baby C when she sleeps on it.

Part 15 Cot sheets

Cot Bumper

We did not intend to get a cot bumper for Baby C initially as we thought that we would not require it. However, as there was a small gap around the perimeter between the cot and the mattress, Sunshine decided that we should get bumpers to prepare when Baby C starts to turn. He found this seller on Qoo10 and we bought one to try. The material of the sheets seemed quite reasonable for its price and we would likely buy another one for changing.

Part 15 Cot bumper

Chest of Drawers

Unlike many other parents-to-be who bought chest of drawers to contain their baby’s clothes, Sunshine and I were looking for something which we felt could be used by Baby C longer. We initially wanted to buy a full-sized cupboard so that there would be space for hanging Baby C’s clothes. Sunshine said that he would preferred to have a built-in cupboard instead of buying one off the shelves. However, as my mum preferred us not to build a built-in cupboard while I was still pregnant, we contemplated either getting a super cheap plastic chest of drawers or a chest of drawers which were still relatively of a good quality. In the end, Sunshine decided on the latter as he said that we could shift the chest of drawers out to our dining room when Baby C outgrows it.

We wanted to buy a chest of drawers from Ikea but as I preferred to have locks for the top two drawers, I wanted to still look around for alternatives. I chanced upon a chest of drawers which looks exactly like the Ikea MALM chest of drawers, but with locks, at a neighbourhood furniture shop. Coincidentally, the dark brown drawer, which was in the exact shade as our dining table legs, was on offer! We made our purchase after Sunshine ok-ed the drawer.

Part 15 Chest of drawers

When the chest of drawer was delivered one week later though, Sunshine realised that the workmanship was not very good. Unlike his previous elated reaction after fixing Baby C’s cot, he was very disappointed with the quality of the drawer and said that we should just buy from Ikea the next time. No more buying of furniture from neighbourhood shops. Our chest of drawers were uneven and Sunshine had to flip the whole drawer to stick rubber pads at its base to make it stable. Similar to the cot, this drawer also came with a smell, albeit a much stronger one such that Sunshine banned me from the room and blasted our Xiaomi air purifier to try and remove the smell. I hope the smell will soon be gone after we air the room for a period of time so that I can finally start washing Baby C’s clothes and sort them in the drawer.

Part 15 Airing the drawers
Airing the drawers…

Ikea trolley

After chancing upon the Ikea trolley and seeing many parents using it in the nursery to contain their baby’s changing products since years ago, I had wanted to get one of these trolleys for myself when I finally got pregnant. Hehe. Hence, while we have not bought it from Ikea yet, it was already on my to-buy list eons ago. Sunshine liked it too and refused cheaper alternatives from Qoo10 when I felt bad for spending $60 instead of $20+ for a version with plastic trays instead of metal ones. Hopefully, the white trolley which we are intending to get, will be on offer soon! (As of writing, the blue one is still being sold at $39 instead of its usual $59).

Part 15 Ikea trolley
Sunshine finally bought the Ikea trolley and assembled it on the day itself! He was very proud and satisfied with himself after that. Haha.

Waterproof Mat

All along, I thought that a waterproof mat to be laid on top of the cot and just beneath a baby, would be a thin waterproof sheet, which is lightweight enough for bringing around as well. It was only when my friend told me that she bought a rubber mat before I realised that there is another type of waterproof mat which had been in existence way longer (my mum said she used to use this type of rubber mat for us as well when we were young). Sunshine said he very much preferred this as the rubber mat would not get wet and any fluid collected could be poured/wiped away, unlike the former, where it is merely water resistant and would likely not be able to withstand leaking pee from a baby’s diapers. Hence, I pre-ordered this rubber mat and recently collected it at the last Mummy’s Market in Jan 2020.

Part 15 Rubber mat

Play Mat

I had observed that the recent craze for play mats is the large one-piece play mat which is cool to touch and easy to clean, instead of the alphabet/numerical blocks which can be dismantled into smaller blocks for easier keeping. I was very tempted to get one of the former type of mats from Little Wiwa when I saw it at one of the baby fairs (cant remember which one). However, as I was still early into my pregnancy then, I KIV-ed it.

It was when I chanced upon this mat from Taobao that I changed my mind. This mat which I eventually bought during the last 11.11 sale measured 167cm by 220cm and only costed about $46 excluding shipping fee (we shipped other things together and hence, I do not know the exact shipping cost for this item only). This looks cute and is more than three times cheaper than the former type of mats (which looks classy and also very attractive)! Wow! Perhaps, I might buy another of the large one piece mat at the next baby fair and justify to put it in our living room =p

Part 15 Cute play mat

Baby Monitor

This section has been written by Sunshine:

I have several criteria that the baby monitor should have:

CriteriaReason
Have a video and sound feed
Wired connectivity (NOT wireless)1) I did not want to have an additional wireless device to suck up the wireless bandwidth.
2) Wireless cameras have higher latency.
3) Reduction in the flat’s radiofrequency (RF) levels
Must NOT send the camera feed to the company’s serversRegardless of what any company says about their privacy policies, they exist to make money (not protect your data). You do not know how stringent is the data protection mindset among their employees.
If you want some reference, just read this article on Ring employees accessing the customers’ video data improperly.
Have the ability to record to my local data storage server1) Monitor how Baby C sleeps (?)
2) Maybe I can do a timelapse video of Baby C sleeping (?)

Examples of “Bad” Baby Monitors

Most (All?) of the baby monitors on the market are wireless (e.g. Philips Avent Digital Video Baby Monitor and Motorola MBP36S Video Baby Monitor).

Some of them send the camera feed to the company’s servers (e.g. Xiaomi Hualai Xiaofang Dafang Smart Baby Monitor, D-link DCS-8100LH HD Wireless Camera and iBaby M7 Baby Monitor). How do you know if they send the camera feed back to their own servers? When they offer the ability to view the camera feed through their proprietary website/app ANYWHERE around the world (e.g. in your office, at your yoga class). This will only be possible if the camera feed touches their server and you do not want that.

My Choice For Baby Monitor – Unifi G3 Flex

Unifi G3 Flex

After looking around at the offerings in the market, I have settled on Ubiquiti UniFi Video G3 Flex Indoor/Outdoor PoE Camera (UVC-G3-FLEX). The camera is marketed as a CCTV camera and not as a baby monitor, but it can work as a baby monitor (which is what truly matters).

List of things the baby monitor offers:

  • The camera offers wired connectivity AND power delivery (using power-over-ethernet or known as POE) via a LAN cable. Hence, you will only need to run ONE wire to the camera.
  • You are able to store the camera recordings on your own server.
  • Ability to access the camera feed via an app (you will need to setup the software/server to enable this – or buy their Unifi Gen2 Cloud Key Plus) Note: You will need to keep the mobile phone on to receive the video/audio feed. I am planning to use one of my old, obsolete mobile phones for this task.
  • Ability to “convert” the baby monitor to a CCTV camera once Baby C has outgrown the need for a baby monitor (Reuse in the 3R’s!)

I have not set up the camera and software yet (I’m still procrastinating). In Feb 2020, I will do up another post with some pictures of the camera setup and app.

If there’s enough interest, I will do a walkthrough post on how to properly setup the camera.

Click to read Part 14 here.
Click to read Part 16 here.


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Rainbow

A novice baker =)

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